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Sweet Deal—Hershey, Others Have Solar Pacts

April 22, 2021

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A well-known chocolate maker has announced two new clean energy partnerships as the company continues to increase its sustainability efforts.

The Hershey Co. on April 20 said it has power purchase agreements (PPAs) to take electricity from two solar projects, one in North Carolina and another in Texas. Hershey, like many corporate power customers, has set a goal to reduce its carbon footprint and has begun investing in renewable energy developments. The Pennsylvania-based snacks producer on Tuesday said the projects “will support the company’s recently announced science-based targets commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”

Hershey is executing a 15-year PPA for a 20-MWac solar farm being developed by BayWa r.e. in Camden, North Carolina (Figure 1). Construction of the project, located on 218 acres, is expected to be completed in late July, according to the companies.

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Solar Energy in the Sunshine State: FPL Leads the Way

April 10, 2021

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Florida is known as “The Sunshine State,” so it’s no surprise that solar energy is growing rampantly across the state. Among the utilities adding solar resources to their energy mixes is Florida Power and Light Co. (FPL).

FPL claims to be the largest energy company in the U.S. as measured by retail electricity produced and sold. The company serves more than 5.6 million customer accounts supporting more than 11 million residents across Florida. FPL—a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy—says it operates “one of the cleanest power generation fleets in the U.S.”

“We are big fans of solar energy, and we’ve been working to advance solar in the state for more than a decade,” Jill Dvareckas, senior director of development with FPL, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “We currently have 37 solar energy centers in operation, with seven more under construction, which makes FPL the largest producer of solar power in Florida.”…

Solar Industry Adds Record Capacity in 2020 in Spite of Pandemic

March 16, 2021

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The U.S. solar industry installed a record 19.2 GWdc of photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2020, a 43% increase from 2019, according to a report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. The numbers are particularly impressive considering the world was dealing with unique challenges as a result of COVID-19.

“After a slowdown in Q2 due to the pandemic, the solar industry innovated and came roaring back to continue our trajectory as America’s leading source of new energy,” said SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “The forecast shows that by 2030, the equivalent of one in eight American homes will have solar, but we still have a long way to go if we want to reach our goals in the Solar+ Decade.”

Solar accounted for 43% of all electricity-generating capacity added in the U.S. in 2020 (Figure 1), representing solar power’s largest-ever share of new generating capacity and ranking first among all technologies for the second year in a row.…

Solar Microgrids Offer Pathway to Decarbonize Mining

January 23, 2021

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Mining is an energy-intensive industry; digging, crushing, and processing minerals takes a lot of power, and mines often operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like other industries, mining companies are seeking solutions to reduce their emissions; both for the sake of the planet and in response to increasing pressure from customers to take a more environmentally friendly approach.

Increasingly, manufacturers that use minerals want to produce goods using more sustainable processes across their entire supply chains. While raw materials, such as rare earth metals, are essential to products such as consumer electronics and electric vehicles, manufacturers are looking to suppliers to reduce the overall carbon intensity of their operations.

Brazil has rich reserves of metals, producing and exporting about 80 mineral commodities, which help to make the country the sixth-largest mining industry in the world (Figure 1). However, mines are often located in remote, off-grid locations, giving mine operators limited options for decarbonization.…

Economic Factors Drive Wind and Solar Growth

December 13, 2020

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Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have found that a combination of lower capital, operating, and finance costs, in addition to better equipment performance, and longer useful lives, have driven power purchase agreement (PPA) prices and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for utility-scale wind and solar projects to all-time lows. The findings were presented by Mark Bolinger, research scientist in the Electricity Markets and Policy Department at LBNL, during a webinar focused on trends in deployment, cost, performance, pricing, and market value for utility-scale wind and solar.

A Decade or More of Phenomenal Growth

Bolinger noted that from 2006 to 2019 wind power capacity operating on the U.S. grid had grown by nearly an order of magnitude—from 11.5 GW to 106 GW. The percentage increase in utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, which researchers define as ground-mounted systems with capacities greater than 5 MW_AC, has been even greater, increasing from 1.7 GW in 2012 to 29 GW at the end of 2019.…

Solar Farms Would Replace New Mexico Coal-Fired Plants

November 17, 2020

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A U.S. subsidiary of one of France’s largest providers of solar power has given New Mexico officials more detailed information about the company’s plans for developing a series of solar projects. The installations would help offset the loss of generation from retiring coal-fired power plants in the state, including the San Juan Generating Station (SJGS) near Farmington.

The 847-MW coal-fired SJGS is scheduled to close in June 2022. Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) earlier this year unveiled a plan using solar-plus-storage to replace the plant’s electricity output. The city of Farmington, meanwhile, has been working with Enchant Energy—a New Mexico company involved in carbon capture and sequestration—on a plan to retrofit the SJGS with carbon-capture technology in order to keep the facility operating. According to Enchant, an ownership agreement between the owners of the SJGS allows the city to acquire the power plant and transfer operations to Enchant.…